The dynamics of migration, health and livelihoods in developing countries: INDEPTH Network perspectives

Mark Collinson, University of the Witwatersrand
Kubaje Adazu, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Michael J. White, Brown University
Sally E. Findley, Columbia University

(On behalf of the INDEPTH Migration & Urbanisation Group) The dynamics of migration, livelihoods and health are complex and unfold over time. The usual means for observing these dynamics is through snapshots, which can miss a lot of what is going on within families and households. In this presentation we present findings from a multi-country INDEPTH study using surveillance of the same households over time. We compare age-sex migration profiles from three sites in Asia and four in Africa and then examine the impact of migration on health and livelihoods. The findings show that specific sections of the population are much more likely to migrate. Better-off households are more likely to realize the benefits of migration and over time and this produces unequal distribution of resources in the population. In one site women’s migration from poorer households tends to reduce socio-economic inequity in the population and, in another, households reallocate labor to compensate for out-migration of prime age adults.